The Scarlet Letter was written in 1850 by Nathaniel Hawthorne has the themes of a romance, a Religious novel about the Puritans, and also fate and free will. Nathaniel Hawthorne probably wrote this book to show the Salam Witch Trials (the first time the term witch is brought up as a wicked old woman) in Salam Massachusetts where Hester Prynne’s hometown had been. It talks about the problems Hester Prynne faces for not following the religion. She is forced to wear a red A on her chest because she and her lover Mr. D had a child named Pearl.
This is a romance novel because not only their love involved, but there is also a difficult choice between Hester Prynne. She has to either be with her lover Arthur Dimmesdale but face the punishment from the Puritans or stay with Roger Chillingworth but be abused by him. So she and Dimmesdale show love in the woods. In the end, Hester and Dimmesdale decide to go to Boston. But Dimmesdale dies on the ship, it was sad but in the end. After the death of Hester, they are buried next to each other so they can have a happy life during the afterlife showing love. This is important because if Nathaniel Hawthorne didn’t write about love at all in the story would be bland. In fact, most good stories have love in it, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and even Marvel has some of it, showing love is an important role in the novel.
Another major part of the novel is religion. Because of religion, she had to be ashamed and wear an “A” on her chest. If there wasn’t any religion in this novel most of the themes and other important roles will not be important anymore. For example, love, she wouldn’t have to secretly love Dimmesdale in the woods. She could freely do love in town (not like on the sidewalk town). Another example is the isolation, she wouldn’t wear the “A” on the chest making her feel isolated. Without religion, she wouldn’t wear the “A” on her chest and can have a normal life.
Finally there is fate and free will. To understand how important it is, if there is no more fate, Mr. D will die differently and he and Hester will not meet up in heaven, concluding that they didn’t have a happy ending and the whole point of writing this book will be useless. Free will is not as powerful as fate though it is similar. How? It’s simple when you have a choice between to things (the free will/choice), one good and one bad, choosing the good, will keep you away from the “dangerous” fate while choosing the bad brings you closer to a “dangerous” fate.
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote Scarlet letter in 1850 to show, in my opinion, the three important themes, love/romance, religion, and fate, and free will. If these 3 themes were kicked out from the book, the book will not last today.
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